The Covid-19 epidemic is currently dominating the news, conversations and our everyday lives.

With our graphic we wanted to spread a little optimism and present three facts that give us a bit of courage and help us feel more positive at this time. Our designer Raphael Hammer has accordingly created an animated graphic that gives some insight into a better world.

The Miami City Commission has approved an ordinance to limit the type, amount and location of fertilizer use within city limits.

The ordinance aims to combat the negative secondary and cumulative effects of excess nutrients in Biscayne Bay and water bodies within the city, which are caused by fertilizer runoff. The proposed legislation is based on independent studies and with research from 85 municipalities and 32 counties that have passed fertilizer ordinances since 2007.

The Ordinance sets guidelines for the amount of fertilizer allowed, both commercial and non-commercial, in the City of Miami. It mandates that fertilizer can only be applied to actively growing turf. It also designates fertilizer-free zones 15 feet from bodies of water.Another aspect of the ordinance focuses on the regulation of nitrogen-releasing fertilizer in most forms, as well as even more rigorous phosphorus regulations.

The ordinance, co-sponsored by Ken Russell from District 2, Manolo Reyes in District 4, and Mayor Francis Suarez, has received strong support from the Sierra Club Florida, Ocean Conservancy, Miami Waterkeeper.

GreenRoofs.com, an online media company, just released a “Featured Projects” video showcasing AquitectonicaGeo’s 46,785 square feet of vegetative roof at University of Miami’s new Lakeside Village student housing.

The University of Miami’s new Lakeside Village student community housing demonstrates some of the best aspects of environmental sustainability in the built environment, as well as some of the most challenging scenarios. With its location on a sensitive coastal watershed in a hurricane zone, every aspect of the building operations must be accountable to the environment.

Some of the sustainable features being incorporated into UM’s Lakeside Village:

The village’s green roofs reduce and slow down water runoff, provide food for pollinator species of animals, naturally insulate the building, and absorb carbon dioxide to clean the air and help regulate the climate

Insulated walls and enhanced window glazing help to regulate the interior temperature without relying on cooling or heating systems

Innovative heating and cooling systems are designed to condition and filter the air as well as re-purpose it for other uses throughout the facility

Existing trees and plant life were evaluated and, when possible, were incorporated into the landscape of Lakeside Village or located elsewhere on campus or in the surrounding local area

According to UM Student Affairs New Student Housing, Lakeside Village is expected to open for students in August 2020. University of Miami’s Centennial Village, the second phase of new student housing, will begin this year and be completed in 2025.

The U.S. Green Building Concil invites you to “discover all of the places where you experience LEED – from your home and local school to where you work and where you play. LEED spaces are everywhere, and there’s a LEED rating system for every type of building project.”

“A Day in the Life of LEED” follows several people through their day to explore some of the features that make a building green:

The new data shows pollution still to be the largest environmental cause of premature death on the planet, killing 8.3 million people in 2017,2 or nearly one death in seven. These deaths are caused by exposure to toxic air, water, soil, and chemical pollution globally.

The GAPH report updates and expands on results of a similar study published in October 2017 – The Lancet Global Commission on Pollution and Health Report.

Diseases linked to pollution still disproportionately kill the poor and vulnerable; and is a leading cause of premature death in many smaller low and middle-income countries. That said, the United States makes the “Top Ten” in sheer number of premature pollution-related deaths.

The United States, the world’s third most populous country with 325 million people, makes the top 10 list by virtue of its size, while ranking 132nd in the number of deaths per 100,000 people. In the U.S., air pollution is responsible for more than half of the pollution-related premature deaths.

Pollution kills three times as many people a year as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. Pollution is responsible for 15 times the number of deaths caused by war and other forms of violence each year. In the most severely affected countries, diseases associated with pollution account for more than one death in four.

The GAPH report categorizes pollution “as modern and traditional”, with modern pollution resulting “from industrialization and urbanization and includes ambient air pollution, soil and chemicals pollution, and pollution in the workplace. These forms of pollution are increasing.” Traditional pollution, on the other hand, “refers to indoor air pollution, largely caused by poor ventilation and smoke from cook stoves and heating fires, and water pollution from unsafe sanitation.” The report notes that while traditional pollution is falling, “poor water sanitation and contaminated indoor air are major killers in the world’s poorest nations.”

Traditional pollution, which closely correlates with poverty, improves as economies grow and living standards rise.

I think the saddest part of this new study is not nothing has changed since the earlier Lancet Commission report was published. According to GAPH, that report had three major messages: Pollution is the largest environmental threat to health; pollution has been severely neglected and has not received adequate attention at private or government levels; and, most telling, pollution can be controlled with solutions that already exist.

An awareness that approximately one in seven deaths in the world is pollution-related should in itself be an immediate call to arms for civil society and government actors alike. Actions to mitigate pollution and implement solutions should be urgently undertaken. However, despite pollution’s substantial effects on human health (as well as on the economy and the environment), pollution mitigation remains in large part neglected, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

In a press conference at Miami City Hall yesterday, City of Miami and Ocean Conservancy announced a “partnership to protect the region’s ocean and coasts, including iconic Biscayne Bay and the Miami River.”

The City of Miami is the first ever “Shores Forward” partner, a brand new initiative led by Ocean Conservancy to partner with local leaders in the fight to conserve Florida’s most treasured asset: its marine environment.

The “Shores Forward” partnership will focus on 5 key issue areas identified in Ocean Conservancy’s new Currents and Crossroads report

Water quality: The City has increased its water quality monitoring and is in the process of updating its stormwater design guidelines. Miami will establish regulations and formal training requirements for landscaping professionals and other commercial fertilizer applicators in the City. Miami and Ocean Conservancy are also committing to work together to develop educational materials for consumers, residents and the general public to understand the proper times and ways to apply fertilizers to avoid negative impacts on the environment and the ocean.

Marine wildlife: Miami will take new steps to restore habitat and protect marine wildlife, including implementing grates over stormwater outfalls to protect manatees, mangrove restoration efforts, marking storm drains to indicate impacts to marine wildlife, and committing to stronger enforcement of boating laws in sensitive habitats like Shrimpers Lagoon.

Education and outreach: Mayor Francis Suarez will launch his “Mayor’s Challenge” with local non-profit Dream in Green to support conservation curriculum in Miami schools. Ocean Conservancy and Dream in Green are formal partners, working together to bring ocean education into Miami-area classrooms, and the city’s commitment further bolsters this effort.

Marine debris: There’s enough plastic entering the ocean to fill Hard Rock Stadium to the brim every other day year round, so we know that cleanups alone won’t solve the problem. The City of Miami and Ocean Conservancy are committing to work together and with world-renowned plastic pollution scientists to conduct a comprehensive, city-wide survey of Miami’s plastic litter and pollution footprint. Miami will be the first major U.S. city to perform a comprehensive plastic pollution survey of this type. Once completed, this study will give the city the information it needs to make data-driven decisions on how to most effectively tackle the city’s plastic pollution challenges.

Carbon pollution: Miami is taking concrete steps to move the Magic City toward a renewable energy future by updating its greenhouse gas inventory, converting its fleet to hybrid cars and creating incentives to switch to solar energy and improving infrastructure with electric car charging stations.